


An Abridged History of Hatake Kakashi and Hospitals

by Voldecourt



Category: Dreaming of Sunshine - Silver Queen
Genre: Angst, Canon typical injuries, Gen, Hospitals, Kakashi's bad experiences with hospitals, and his bad experiences in general
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-24
Updated: 2019-10-24
Packaged: 2021-01-02 16:23:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21164594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Voldecourt/pseuds/Voldecourt
Summary: When Kakashi was three and nine months old, ready to start at the academy in the coming spring, his father had taken him to the hospital to get his prerequisite vaccinations.This would be the best experience Hatake Kakashi ever had with hospitals. It went downhill from there.





	An Abridged History of Hatake Kakashi and Hospitals

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Charientist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charientist/gifts).

When Hatake Kakashi was three and nine months old, ready to start at the academy in the coming spring, his father had taken him to the hospital to get his prerequisite vaccinations. 

The antiseptic smell in the air made his nose itch, and the waiting room was too crowded and noisy. When it was his turn, the nurses hands were too cold, and his arm ached for days after she was done. But the lollipop and his father’s proud smile when he didn’t flinch from the pain made it almost worth it. 

This would be the best experience Kakashi ever had with hospitals. 

His Genin and Chuunin years didn’t see him visiting the hospital that often, in spite of the way team 7 missions never worked out as intended. Minato-sensei would normally just drag him to wherever Tsunade or another medic he knew, and once Rin got the hang of medical jutsu she was more than willing to mend a few broken bones. He almost never had to enter the annoying place, with med-nins who would prod you and ask questions and keep you overnight and not let you summon dogs. 

Then Kannabi Bridge happened, and his time spent in the hospital was characterized by numbness, not registering the medics healing his torture wounds, or the Uchiha examning his eye. All he could see was Rin trying desperately not to cry, Minato-sensei beside her, stoic and unmoving, and, in his mind’s eye, Obito’s face as the rocks came crashing down. 

Months later, he was in the same room, plagued with Chakra exhaustion for the first, and most certainly not the last, time, and he could still feel the phantom of Rin’s blood on his hand, even though medics had cleaned him down hours ago. It took days for Minato-sensei to visit him, this time, in the secure ANBU ward, too busy dealing with the aftermath. 

Kyyubi attacked, not long after, and Kakashi, chakra exhausted and grieving, had to go to the hospital again. And Minato would never be able to visit him again. 

The medics were in short supply and the beds and Kakashi’s services in too high demand for Kakashi to stay long. He’d been given a chakra transfusion and sent out immediately. To maintain order, to count the dead, and to protect what was left of the village. 

Still, whenever his brain flashed back to the night, it always lingered on the ugly cracked hospital ceiling. When he realized that he had nobody else left. 

It became the theme of the next few years. Every bad mission, every time a comrade was lost or a client failed, and Kakakshi would be left staring up at the hospital walls; chakra exhausted and useless. 

By that point Kakashi wasn’t a fan of the hospital, but he endured them. They were awful, but necessary. Kakashi could stand some physical discomfort, and the painful memories the place triggered weren’t worse than what he dealt with every day. The hospital, at least, was protected, was safe. 

Until it wasn’t. 

It all started when a team consisting of himself, Gai, and Genma had been given an A rank mission to Tea, where they had been tasked with body guarding an archaeology expedition unearthing ancient treasures, and destroying or stealing any relics that could prove problematic to Konoha. 

The ancient treasures had been more well protected than expected, and the rival archaeologists hiring a team from Cloud with the same idea made for a harrowing mission. 

By the end of it, Kakashi had been waylaid by chakra exhaustion, Genma almost fatally poisoned with a concoction he wasn’t fully immune to, and Gai physically strained as he’d had to open a higher gate than usual. 

That they managed to walk into Konoha on their own feet was a testament to the team’s skill and ability, but none of them escaped an overnight stay at the hospital. They’d been roomed together in hopes that, as Genma was his former genin teammate, and Kakashi was a known acquaintance, they’d be able to prevent Gai from exacerbating his injuries. 

It was mostly a successful endeavor. As Kakashi bickered and let his rival challenge him to endless rock paper scissors matches, egged on by Genma, he even thought this hospital stay would be one of the better ones. 

Then he was awoken by a surge of chakra, overhead, and his eye snapped open to meet the gaze of a bone white mask. 

He reached for the small sliver of chakra he had left, and grabbed the Kunai he kept under his pillow. He only had one strike in him, but, miraculously, it did the job, and his attacker fell on him, unmoving as he bled out from the neck. 

There were two more chakra signatures with them. Heart pounding, Kakashi looked across the room, to Gai’s bed, to see another masked assassin, briefly started from his objective and glancing Kakashi’s way.

He struggled to get up, to throw his Kunai, to move and do _something _but he was pinned by his own exhaustion and the dying man on top of him. The assassin moved back to his target, who had woken up now, but the seriousness of his injury would make it a difficult and unfavorably one-sided fight. 

Was this how it was going to end? Kakashi, forever unable to do anything while the only person he had left to care about was killed in front of him? 

An arc of senbon flew overhead, one hitting the assassin and distracting him for long enough for Gai to get in a fighting position. 

Genma was standing as well, sweating from the effort of saving his teammate while engaged with his own masked individual while the poison ravaged his system. 

The ensuing fight was messy and desperate, but eventually their assailants fell to Genma’s poison, Gai’s turtle, and reinforcements from the medics on duty. 

The hospital no longer felt safe, after that. Even in the most secure of ANBU wards or guarded by his ninken he would never feel anything close to comfort in a hospital again. 

Quickly, Kakashi gained a reputation for terrorizing nurses and medics alike with his antics. He would escape the hospital at the first presented opportunity, leaping through windows and falling to the ground with no regard for the height. When he came to consciousness after a bout of chakra exhaustion, to the feeling of unfamiliar, agitated chakra above him, he would always spring to attack, no matter his surroundings. 

On their first C-rank to Wave, his students would learn this the hard way, when he almost broke Shikako’s wrists after Zabuza’s attack. 

No, Kakashi didn’t need to stay in the hospital. He, and everyone else, for that matter, was safer with him convalescing in his own house, with traps and his dogs and full knowledge of where all the weapons were. 

The only time Kakashi would willingly enter a hospital was if he wasn’t a patient. When Gai overworked himself, or a mission went south, Kakashi could regularly be found right outside his window, lounging with his book until his friend was back on his feet. Gai would return the favor by very obviously patrolling in a perimeter around his apartment, and never dragging him back to the medics. 

And when two of his students were hospitalized after the genin exams and Orochimaru, Kakashi stalked the secure ward throughout the night, as Sasuke slept off the seal’s effects. And during the day, after Shikaku left in the night, he kept Shikako company until she could sign out with only softer bones and the faintest of hints of the ugly cut that could have scarred her face to show for her experience. 

Silently, Kakakshi reaffirmed his vow to keep his students safe and away from needing to visit the hospital as much as he did. 

It was a vow he would keep breaking, again and again. Beginning with Shikako, again; and Tsukuyomi. 

Waking up from the endless torture and stabbing had been a relief, though the familiar sight of the hospital celing did little to comfort him. At the very least Tsunade was back; she was the most tolerable medic Minato had ever dragged him to. And he wouldn’t be leaving the hospital with the promise of a terrible new hat, which was a plus. 

Gai came to visit, during the evening, after Tsunade had shooed him out of Lee’s room to discuss Lee’s medical options. Gai looked nervous, in spite of his smile and assurances that Lee and his ‘hardworking Youthful spirit’ would be enough to overcome any obstacle. 

If Gai, or anyone else, thought that he’d be enough of a comforting presence to get him to remain in the hospital, and not retreat to the safety of his apartment at the first opportunity, they were sorely mistaken. 

Half following the conversation about what he’d missed the past month, and half planning how to best get Gai to leave so he could try to jump out the window, and if his body could handle it Kakashi was only vaguely aware of his door opening, until Shikako walked in. 

She was moving slowly and staggering, leaning on an IV pole for support and looking absolutely exhausted. 

His worry only grew when Gai became nervous, and Shikako was unable to speak, instead insisting with her hands that she was fine. The way she laid down on his bed immediately, curled up beside him, tired and weary did nothing to comfort him.

He wasn’t able to stop the flinch, as Gai informed him of what happened, and despite Shikako signing more half hearted assurances, he could only see the worst. 

His student had been in the hospital for the past month. She'd been attacked by Itachi, subjected to the same torturous genjutsu as him, unconscious and weak and vulnerable in a hospital and _he hadn’t been able to protect her. _

But, she was alive, and healing, her eyes half closed and seemingly content to fall half asleep beside him, trusting him and those in the hospital to keep her safe.

Silently, Kakashi resigned himself to remaining in the hospital for as long as Shikako was. He hated the place, and every instinct was screaming at him that he wasn’t safe, and should leave as soon as possible. But his student was here, and for that reason, he would stay until she could leave.

He would protect her, protect all his students, no matter what. That vow, at least, he would keep.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Halloween! I hope everyone is having a fun and spooky time! Real life made this a bit of a pain to write, but I hope you like it!


End file.
